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57% of executives trust AI security systems 'as much or more than' humans

Tech Republic/6/14/2017

57% of executives trust AI security systems 'as much or more than' humans

Adoption of artificial intelligence for security automation is reaching critical mass, according to a new Radware report, with 81% of executives now relying more heavily on AI solutions.

Enterprises are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to fight a growing cyber threat landscape, according to the 2017 Executive Application & Network Security Survey from security firm Radware. Some 81% of executives said they have implemented automated solutions for security, while 57% said that they trust these AI systems as much or more than human security professionals to protect their organizations.

Two in five executives (38%) said that they expected automated security systems to be the primary tool for managing cybersecurity efforts within the next two years.

"Businesses have to fight fire with fire," said Carl Herberger, vice president of security solutions at Radware, in a press release. "Today's threat actors continue to build highly automated and adaptive tools, like the Mirai and Hajime botnets. These attacks can wreak catastrophic damage to a network. Executives that aren't yet fighting these new dynamic threats with continuously adaptive attack detection and mitigation capabilities are putting their organization at risk."

Increasing concerns over cyber attacks that disrupt business have moved security to a CEO- or board-level issue for 85% of companies, according to the report. Some 62% of executives rate security as an "extremely important" priority—up from 53% last year.Security is the no. 1 driver of digital transformation efforts in organizations, Radware found. Nearly half of executives (47%) cited improving information security as a major goal of their digital transformation projects. And three-quarters of these professionals said that cybersecurity concerns were "critical" in shaping business digital transformation efforts.

In terms of coming security threats, executives reported that they expect the largest issues to come from network infrastructure (27%), followed by Internet of Things (IoT) devices (22%), and energy/power infrastructure (21%).

In the event of a cyberattack, executives said their top business worry was a negative customer experience, followed by brand reputation loss, operational and customer loss, and revenue loss.

"Executives are scrutinizing the gaps in their security like never before, taking a more active approach to defending their customer experience and avoiding the brand damage that hackers can cause," said Anna Convery-Pelletier, chief marketing officer at Radware, in the release. "Today's educated consumer is keenly aware of security - as customer experience is now closely tied with reputation management and data protection. Consumers therefore use these critical parameters as the basis for their decision to do business with a company."

The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers

1. Executives are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) security solutions to protect their organizations, with 81% of executives implementing more automated solutions for security, according to a new Radware report.

2. Some 57% of executives said that they trust these AI systems as much or more than humans to protect their organizations.

3. Cybersecurity concerns have been elevated to a board-level issue in most organizations, and are the no. 1 driver of digital transformation efforts, the report found.

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